Wife of Illinois officer who staged suicide indicted

FOX LAKE, Ill. – The wife of a northern Illinois police officer who killed himself after embezzling from a youth program was indicted Wednesday on charges of money laundering and disbursing charitable funds without authority.

Melodie Gliniewicz turned herself in at the Lake County Sheriff's Office when she learned of the grand jury indictment, said detective Christopher Covelli, a sheriff's office spokesman. She was being processed and taken to the county jail Wednesday afternoon, he said. Her bond was set at $50,000. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a voicemail and email seeking comment.

Her husband, Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, died Sept. 1. Authorities say he staged his suicide to look like a homicide because he feared discovery of embezzlement from the Fox Lake Police Explorer Post.

Joe Gliniewicz had run the Explorer program for teens interested in possible careers in law enforcement. Authorities say Melodie Gliniewicz served as an adviser to the Explorer Post and had a fiduciary role with the program's finances.

Gliniewicz's death touched off an intense manhunt involving hundreds of officers and raised fears of cop killers on the loose.

Two months after Gliniewicz' death, authorities announced that he had killed himself after embezzling from the village's Police Explorer program for seven years, prompting tough questions about why it had taken so long to reach that conclusion.

"We completely believed from day one that this was a homicide," George Filenko, the commander of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, told reporters at the time.